Ten things we learned this week: 22 January 2016 edition

“The bored-out 5.2-litre engine revs like it’s completely free of all friction,” says Pat Devereux of the Shelby Mustang GT350R in the current issue of Top Gear. “Active suspension helps the car flick in and out of turns way faster than you thought possible for a muscle car.”

An experience, then, to savour for yourself, unsullied by wimpish cries from tortured passengers.

So thought Ten Things. Incorrectly, it turns out. Ford is now offering a pair of rear seats for the GT350R thanks to customer demand, the $999 option coming trimmed in the same red-stitched Alcantara as the front pews.

Or, to put it another way: pay a premium for the GT350R, which strips the rear seats out of a ‘Stang (among other tweaks), and then pay a further premium to put them back in. At the equivalent of £45,000, though, we’re still going to call it a bargain…

Our favourite viral video of the week comes all the way from Australia. Namely Darwin, in its Northern Territory.

Watch the video here and look carefully for the opportune thief, running to nab the car - which looks to us to be a Nissan Silvia - as its owner goes to pay for the fuel he’s popped in.

What the wily carjacker hasn’t accounted for is a car owner with razor-sharp reactions and a black belt in something especially kicky. It may not be immediately successful, but his jump through the slim window opening of his coupe is a joy to behold.

He’s still got his car, and he’s also earned the eternal respect of Ten Things…

Advertising your clever safety technology by scaring the bejesus out of people is a little unconventional. But this rather tickled us.

It’s an advert for Volkswagen’s Trailer Assist, which you can watch here. The tech does what it says on the spec sheet: it helps take the pain out of manoeuvring with an appendage hanging perilously out back.

The advert, though, is anything but, as pedestrians have the wind put up them by a Passat and trailer seemingly reversing past them at exceedingly high speed. Or are they? This behind the scenes video link comes with a spoiler alert…

And he gives Justin Bieber lifts in it. Ten Things doesn’t condone the internet’s sidebars of shame, and their rapacious appetite for celebrity gossip. But this one’s spiked our interest.

It appears Lewis is a firm Belieber, after giving his chart-dominating mate a noisy ride around Beverly Hills, something that was somewhat creepily filmed and popped on YouTube here.

If you want evidence the pair are inside the 950bhp Ferrari, then both of their Instagram accounts feature snaps of the car. Lewis’ tie-up to Mercedes no doubt stops him from being too obvious extolling the virtues of a Prancing Horse product, but we’d suggest there’s nothing surreptitious about rolling around LA with the world’s biggest pop star in your passenger seat…

Yep, as well as the LaFerrari (and McLaren P1, and Pagani Zonda, and SL65 Black…), Hammo also has an extra plush and stretchy S-Class in his collection.

No surprise given he’s a Mercedes employee, perhaps, and in light of his glamorous lifestyle, perhaps we shouldn’t express any shock that he’s transported via Maybach to an awaiting private jet.

Our biggest issue with this picture is that it was tweeted with the caption ‘Fleek’. Hanging out with Bieber and using words like that: is Lewis channelling his inner teenage girl?

Picture: Lewis Hamilton

Bad news for bauble sales in Woking: McLaren cancelled Christmas at the end of last year. Well, kind of…

After a less than successful 2015 season (in the car above), the F1 team is, perhaps not surprisingly, keen to make amends. So to ensure the 2016 car is fighting fit for its February 21 debut, numerous members of staff worked the festive break.

"In total, there were about 110 people involved and we looked after our Christmas workers with a competitive package,” said McLaren Racing operations director Simon Roberts.

"We had a really good response, and people seemed to enjoy it too – it was a bit weird, not having all the time off, but there was a good spirit in the place. Everyone knew why they were doing it, and it really cleared the decks.

"Most pleasingly, it meant that, once we came back in the New Year, we were back on schedule – and it felt like the programme had always been phased that way. It was an incredible effort."

Here’s hoping it helps McLaren sleigh its opponents this season…

Regular Ten Things readers will know all about Audi’s battle to get trademarks for more SUVs.

The problem? Fiat Chrysler owned the rights to ‘Q2’ and ‘Q4’, after the badges ran on Alfa Romeos of old. This was an unwelcome fly in the ointment of Audi’s plan to have a Q-prefixed SUV for each single digit.

The onslaught can begin, though, as Audi and Fiat have made a deal not revolving around money, apparently, but the swapping of trademarks.

Audi can now release MQB-platform based Q2 and Q4 models, while the Italians seemingly have some VW Group nameplates in return. The return of the Maserati Bora, perhaps? Tell us what you think below…

Two unfortunate pieces of news have emerged from Goodwood House - the epicentre of the UK’s best car festival - this week.

First off, Lord and Lady March (the former above, left of Sir Stirling Moss) suffered an awful ordeal as they were tied up, enabling a reported £700,000 of prized jewellery to be stolen. We hope they aren’t too shaken up.

Further negativity comes in the shape of a potential bypass which could put its famous Festival of Speed at risk. Local roads need an upgrade to deal with increasing traffic, but not all of the proposed routes are good news for events at Goodwood House.

“Goodwood supports the need for improvements to the existing road. It is a critical necessity for the people and businesses of Chichester District,” a statement on the Chichester Observer website reads.

“Currently Goodwood generates something in the region of £240m a year of economic value for the economy and we believe a northern expressway will put much, if not all, of that at risk.”

A better week has been had by Uber. Transport for London has dropped proposals to limit its service in London, to the joy of many, if not black cab drivers.

And it has also signed a deal with Airbus allowing it to offer helicopter rides. Yep. You may soon be able to Uber a chopper.

The service is being offered at the Sundance Film Festival in the US, and it has previously been offered at other events, including the Cannes Film Festival. In fact, Uber has already branched out to offer rickshaws in India and boat rides in Turkey. As Airbus’s helicopter sales suffer, it’s looking for new ways to reach an audience.

Just don’t count on a Bell Cobra like the one above landing outside the pub for you later tonight…

Over to The Independent for this week’s ‘yeah, right’ story of the week.

“An absent-minded tourist left his wife stranded at a petrol station and didn’t notice she was missing for almost 60 miles,” the story kicks off. Didn’t notice for almost 60 miles? Or didn’t feel guilty for escaping until he’d covered that distance?

They’d been holidaying in Brazil and were returning to their Argentinian homeland when the faux pas occurred. Panicked phone calls from wife to husband were thwarted by poor signal on the road.

Deliberate or accidental, the pair were reunited a couple of hours later when he (and his 14-year-old son, also in the car) turned back. She greeted their return by, um, angrily kicking the car. Probably fair.